Skepticism as Cuba OKs law to lure foreign investors
Alan Gomez, USA TODAY 6:52 p.m. EDT March 29, 2014
MIAMI — A new law approved by the Cuban National Assembly on Saturday
designed to lure more foreign investment to the island nation has many
wondering what it will mean.
The new law has Cuba observers wondering whether it will energize the
country's struggling economy, whether it represents a step from the
county's centrally planned economy to a more capitalist one, and whether
the success of foreign companies there will prompt American businesses
to push for a change in the U.S embargo on the Communist country.
For some, the question is far simpler.
"Would you put your money in Cuba?" says Jaime Suchlicki, director of
the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of
Miami. "It's a system that's not transparent, there's no legal system
that protects foreign investment."
"They can change the law," he adds, "but they have to change the system
for people to jump in and invest."
That skepticism is exactly what government officials are trying to
change in Cuba, which has a complicated history with foreign investment.
While Cuba has allowed foreign investors from across the globe to
participate in selective, carefully monitored enterprises, its
government has permitted those companies to maintain only 49% ownership
of their operations.
Under the new law — endorsed by President Raúl Castro and approved
Saturday by the Cuban parliament — foreign companies will be able to
hold a 100% ownership in ventures. For companies that engage in joint
ventures, the profits tax will be cut from 30% to 15%, and most
investors would be exempt from paying that tax for at least eight years.
The law also would allow the free transfer of profits and dividends off
the island without additional tax and ensure legal protections for
companies engaged in disputes.
The law follows a series of economic reforms that have been instituted
since Raúl Castro assumed power over his ailing brother, Fidel, six
years ago. Cubans can now buy and sell their homes and cars, and the
government cut more than a half-million workers from the state payroll
and has encouraged more private operation and ownership of small businesses.
"They've made a bunch of positive changes, but so far they have not seen
the growth and the job creation and the foreign exchange earnings that
they need," says Phil Peters, president of the Virginia-based Cuba
Research Center. "They've made progress, but the economy needs a bigger
lift and foreign capital can do that."
Carmelo Mesa-Lago, a Cuba native who has studied the country's economy
as a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, says the lower taxes,
higher ownership stakes in investments and streamlined process to open a
business in Cuba are all things that any company would look for.
"I know companies who negotiated for over a year and then get denied,"
he says. "The law limits the process for that to two months. That's very
fast."
While the country's biggest economic lures — tourism and mining for
natural resources — are already being handled by foreign companies, some
see openings in the lagging agricultural industry and emerging sectors,
like biotechnology and pharmaceutical production.
But as with most things related to Cuba, there's a catch. Cuba passed
another foreign investment law in 1995 that allowed for such things as
100% ownership by foreign companies. But Mesa-Lago says the legions of
government functionaries never permitted that to be carried out.
"There is little confidence investing in Cuba," he says. "The question
is, how is this new law going to change that mentality? This is going to
depend on how they implement this new law in reality."
The new law does not change the fact that foreign companies must still
go through a government-run workforce agency, meaning the government
will still oversee the hiring and firing of all employees. The new law
also prohibits Cubans on the island from investing in any new companies
or joint ventures, meaning residents of Cuba can still only own
small-scale businesses like restaurants and barber shops.
And despite the welcoming tone, every decision is still made by a
government that, as one of its first acts in power more than 50 years
ago, nationalized foreign companies.
"If you were a businessman in France and you want to invest in the
Caribbean, you wouldn't go to Cuba," Suchlicki says. "You'd go to Mexico
or the Dominican Republic or, if you want to sell in the United States,
you got Puerto Rico. Why would you go to Cuba?"
If enough companies invest in Cuba and they prove successful, that could
reignite a debate in the U.S. over the embargo on the island.
"American companies are interested," says Yosbel Ibarra, a Miami-based
corporate attorney at Greenberg Traurig who co-chairs the firm's Latin
American and Iberian practice. "I think that there is some nostalgia for
the possibility of being one of the first American companies in Cuba."
That could prompt business leaders to press Congress for a change in
U.S. policy toward Cuba.
"Certainly what we're going to see in the coming months is that new
investment opportunities are going to open up in Cuba and everyone but
the United States is going to seize them," Peters says. "If that prompts
efforts to change U.S. law, then that would be a good thing."
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., dismisses any talk of weakening the
embargo and says the idea of a bright, new day for investment in Cuba is
naive.
"This is the latest desperate effort to maintain its brutal totalitarian
control over the Cuban people," she says. "It's just an old regime ploy
to hide its failed policies that have shown that Cuba is not open for
business because the Castro regime continues to owe billions of dollars
to foreign entities."
Still, some say it's impossible to simply dismiss what has now been six
years of economic changes in Cuba.
"When an adversary adopts a position you suggested, let them. Celebrate
it," says Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla. "Yes, it's a step for them to continue
to survive. But it's a step in the direction that all of us want, which
is the further liberalization of the Cuban economy."
Source: Skepticism as Cuba OKs law to lure foreign investors -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/03/29/cuba-foreign-investment-law/7050617/
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Soldiers of Information
Soldiers of Information / Rosa Maria Rodriguez
Posted on March 29, 2014
On March 14, the Cuban press spent another day with more grief than
glory. Like previous years, some media guerrillas pledged to do more
critical journalism. I wonder with whom. With society and grassroots
leaders? So not fair! To criticize anyone but those responsible for the
devastation of Cuba seems to be the motto of the soldiers of the media,
because nobody wants to jeopardize their job and perks, which translated
back to 1959 Cuban means, "let death take another." The key is given by
the fifty-five years of the of the Castro dictatorship in general and by
the forty-seven of the original dictator, who left the national
caudillista scar of "as I say," in a trail of verbal violence,
disrespect and discrimination towards those who think differently. Then,
what or who to criticize? Capitalism, of course, the United States, and
all who are not aligned or sympathetic to the so-called Revolution.
The group is power always had ears receptive to their own interests and
deaf to the real demands of society. The monopoly of information in Cuba
is in the hands of the state, which officially prohibits the circulation
of independent publications, freedom of association and a multiparty system.
The most chilling test starred the journalist Arleen Rodriguez around
2005, in the days when the price of a kilowatt had risen. On a visit by
Fidel Castro to The Roundtable show in which she participated, she
complained about the high price of electricity in front of him, and he,
clearly annoyed, and with the veiled threat of "your husband is my
friend," appeared the following day at the beginning of the program,
with a written text to make no mistake nor to say a single letter more
than needed, and clarify that "what she wanted to express was…" It goes
without saying, the writer and poet Heberto Padilla, founder of the
Origins group, who in the 1960s was made to publicly denounce his peers
and commit harakiri with a blade rusted by extortion.
Personally, I reaffirm what I have said before, that while our
communication professionals do not have and feel the freedom to express
what they really want and that concerns some or all of the people, there
will be no true information transparency that facilitates and stimulates
the freedom of expression of the workers in the industry and of the
society in general. From themselves, without changing the violence that
ended the democratic structures, which remain in order to perpetuate
themselves in power and a dependent and manipulated press, couldn't
obtain what the leaders of the government want: instead of "dropping
political flirtations" to the model in the Cuban media, creating the
props for a media theater to send the world the false messages that
there is freedom in Cuba.
25 March 2014
Source: Soldiers of Information / Rosa Maria Rodriguez | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/soldiers-of-information-rosa-maria-rodriguez/
Posted on March 29, 2014
On March 14, the Cuban press spent another day with more grief than
glory. Like previous years, some media guerrillas pledged to do more
critical journalism. I wonder with whom. With society and grassroots
leaders? So not fair! To criticize anyone but those responsible for the
devastation of Cuba seems to be the motto of the soldiers of the media,
because nobody wants to jeopardize their job and perks, which translated
back to 1959 Cuban means, "let death take another." The key is given by
the fifty-five years of the of the Castro dictatorship in general and by
the forty-seven of the original dictator, who left the national
caudillista scar of "as I say," in a trail of verbal violence,
disrespect and discrimination towards those who think differently. Then,
what or who to criticize? Capitalism, of course, the United States, and
all who are not aligned or sympathetic to the so-called Revolution.
The group is power always had ears receptive to their own interests and
deaf to the real demands of society. The monopoly of information in Cuba
is in the hands of the state, which officially prohibits the circulation
of independent publications, freedom of association and a multiparty system.
The most chilling test starred the journalist Arleen Rodriguez around
2005, in the days when the price of a kilowatt had risen. On a visit by
Fidel Castro to The Roundtable show in which she participated, she
complained about the high price of electricity in front of him, and he,
clearly annoyed, and with the veiled threat of "your husband is my
friend," appeared the following day at the beginning of the program,
with a written text to make no mistake nor to say a single letter more
than needed, and clarify that "what she wanted to express was…" It goes
without saying, the writer and poet Heberto Padilla, founder of the
Origins group, who in the 1960s was made to publicly denounce his peers
and commit harakiri with a blade rusted by extortion.
Personally, I reaffirm what I have said before, that while our
communication professionals do not have and feel the freedom to express
what they really want and that concerns some or all of the people, there
will be no true information transparency that facilitates and stimulates
the freedom of expression of the workers in the industry and of the
society in general. From themselves, without changing the violence that
ended the democratic structures, which remain in order to perpetuate
themselves in power and a dependent and manipulated press, couldn't
obtain what the leaders of the government want: instead of "dropping
political flirtations" to the model in the Cuban media, creating the
props for a media theater to send the world the false messages that
there is freedom in Cuba.
25 March 2014
Source: Soldiers of Information / Rosa Maria Rodriguez | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/soldiers-of-information-rosa-maria-rodriguez/
Microbuses or Transport’s Shame
Microbuses or Transport's Shame / Ernesto Garcia Diaz
Posted on March 29, 2014
HAVANA, Cuba – In the Cuban capital, two cooperatives operate the old
public routes of the so-called taxis-ruteros, microbuses which take
passengers from the Parque de El Curita, to four destinations: El
Náutico, Alamar, Santiago de las Vegas and La Palma.
Curious to know why the people in Havana speak so ill of these services,
I asked the impatient passengers: how frequently do they run? how long
do they take to get there? And to various drivers of the vehicles, about
the contracts the cooperatives use to lease out the buses.
A driver on the Parque del Curita Micro X line – who didn't give his
name – answered me: " I do about 16 journeys a day, the microbus has 25
seats, and the fares for them to go to the CNoA (Non-Agricultural
Cooperatives), 50 seats for the total return journey, or say 250 pesos.
The fare is 5 pesos (CUP), equivalent to 20 cents."
The driver continued: I carry more than 800 passengers a day, I collect
about 4,000 Cuban pesos (equivalent to $160). In 24 working days I hand
over to the association, not less than 96,000 pesos ($3840). First I pay
over what is due to the cooperative, which leases me the vehicle, the
difference, or what is left over, goes to the drivers, because we are
the semi-owners of these microbuses. Did you know we have to repair,
clean, and cover the cost of maintenance, for which we have to pay third
parties and the CnoA itself?
Another driver went further than his colleague: "After paying the
association, I am left with some 1,200 pesos ($48), because as I am
going along people get on and off. Those receipts don't go to the CNoA;
we keep them for our costs, because we are driving piles of old junk.
I could recognise that the micro's driver, as well as his own income,
receives about 600 pesos a month from the cooperative ($24), as profit
share for being associates.
Liliana Ezquerra, vice president of the Provincial Administration
Council of Havana, recently emphasized to the media: "When the two
transport cooperatives started operating, using vehicles rented from the
state, the number of passengers in the capital increased and at a lower
fare than the private drivers charge."
One passenger in the Micro X Alamar told me "It's 8:50 in the morning, I
waited 40 minutes for the bus, they arrive here when they feel like,
come to fill up with fuel and hang around to go back again or to start
their working day. They take time having a snack – how should I know?!
The bottom line is, it's a disaster. They may be cheaper than the
privates, but I can't rely on them to get me to my work on time."
Another passenger told me: "There is no fixed time for them to start
work; but nevertheless the pirates are in the street at 6 in the
morning, and at 12 at night they are still providing a service; I don't
even want to talk about the public buses, you can't even count on
finding one at 7:30 at night."
The third passenger, irritated, assured me: "Look, a microbus just got
here and it got lost more than 30 minutes ago. Just so you can see.
Look, there it comes, who should I complain to if now they are the owners?
As for me, I took a photo of the delayed bus, because I also spent more
than 30 minutes waiting for it.
Cubanet, March 11th 2014. Ernesto García Díaz
Translated by GH
24 March 2014
Source: Microbuses or Transport's Shame / Ernesto Garcia Diaz |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/microbuses-or-transports-shame-ernesto-garcia-diaz/
Posted on March 29, 2014
HAVANA, Cuba – In the Cuban capital, two cooperatives operate the old
public routes of the so-called taxis-ruteros, microbuses which take
passengers from the Parque de El Curita, to four destinations: El
Náutico, Alamar, Santiago de las Vegas and La Palma.
Curious to know why the people in Havana speak so ill of these services,
I asked the impatient passengers: how frequently do they run? how long
do they take to get there? And to various drivers of the vehicles, about
the contracts the cooperatives use to lease out the buses.
A driver on the Parque del Curita Micro X line – who didn't give his
name – answered me: " I do about 16 journeys a day, the microbus has 25
seats, and the fares for them to go to the CNoA (Non-Agricultural
Cooperatives), 50 seats for the total return journey, or say 250 pesos.
The fare is 5 pesos (CUP), equivalent to 20 cents."
The driver continued: I carry more than 800 passengers a day, I collect
about 4,000 Cuban pesos (equivalent to $160). In 24 working days I hand
over to the association, not less than 96,000 pesos ($3840). First I pay
over what is due to the cooperative, which leases me the vehicle, the
difference, or what is left over, goes to the drivers, because we are
the semi-owners of these microbuses. Did you know we have to repair,
clean, and cover the cost of maintenance, for which we have to pay third
parties and the CnoA itself?
Another driver went further than his colleague: "After paying the
association, I am left with some 1,200 pesos ($48), because as I am
going along people get on and off. Those receipts don't go to the CNoA;
we keep them for our costs, because we are driving piles of old junk.
I could recognise that the micro's driver, as well as his own income,
receives about 600 pesos a month from the cooperative ($24), as profit
share for being associates.
Liliana Ezquerra, vice president of the Provincial Administration
Council of Havana, recently emphasized to the media: "When the two
transport cooperatives started operating, using vehicles rented from the
state, the number of passengers in the capital increased and at a lower
fare than the private drivers charge."
One passenger in the Micro X Alamar told me "It's 8:50 in the morning, I
waited 40 minutes for the bus, they arrive here when they feel like,
come to fill up with fuel and hang around to go back again or to start
their working day. They take time having a snack – how should I know?!
The bottom line is, it's a disaster. They may be cheaper than the
privates, but I can't rely on them to get me to my work on time."
Another passenger told me: "There is no fixed time for them to start
work; but nevertheless the pirates are in the street at 6 in the
morning, and at 12 at night they are still providing a service; I don't
even want to talk about the public buses, you can't even count on
finding one at 7:30 at night."
The third passenger, irritated, assured me: "Look, a microbus just got
here and it got lost more than 30 minutes ago. Just so you can see.
Look, there it comes, who should I complain to if now they are the owners?
As for me, I took a photo of the delayed bus, because I also spent more
than 30 minutes waiting for it.
Cubanet, March 11th 2014. Ernesto García Díaz
Translated by GH
24 March 2014
Source: Microbuses or Transport's Shame / Ernesto Garcia Diaz |
Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/microbuses-or-transports-shame-ernesto-garcia-diaz/
Cuba approves law aimed at attracting foreign investment
Cuba approves law aimed at attracting foreign investment
By Daniel Trotta
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's National Assembly passed a new foreign
investment law on Saturday that aims to bring badly needed capital to
the communist economy by offering steep tax cuts and promising a climate
of investment security.
The assembly voted in a special session to approve the law, state
television reported without providing a vote tally. It will become valid
within 90 days.
The new law halves the profits tax from 30 to 15 percent and exempts
investors from paying it for eight years, though it also appears to
withhold many of the tax benefits from companies that are 100 percent
foreign-owned. Those incentives are reserved for joint ventures with the
Cuban state and investments linking foreign and Cuban companies.
Analysts and Cuban-based diplomats have expressed skepticism over the
law, uncertain whether the one-party state has undergone a genuine
change of heart and truly wants to attract foreign investors on
international terms.
Areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, sugar, nickel mining,
building renovation and real estate development are considered ripe for
investment.
Cuba needs to attract $2 billion to $2.5 billion in foreign direct
investment per year to reach its economic growth target of 7 percent,
minister for foreign trade and investment Rodrigo Malmierca said on
Cuban state television on Friday night.
Cuba does not publish figures on FDI, which economists estimate to be
several hundred million dollars a year at most. Cuba's gross domestic
product is expected to expand 2.2 percent this year, compared with 2.7
percent growth in 2013.
"If the economy does not grow at levels around 7 percent ... we are not
going to be able to develop," Malmierca said.
"We have to provide incentives in order for them to come," Malmierca
said of foreign investors.
Cuba is cut off from U.S. investment by a comprehensive trade embargo
and has failed to meet its investment targets for each of the past five
years.
The new investment law continues the structural economic reforms under
way in Cuba since President Raul Castro took over from his ailing
brother Fidel in 2008. It has been anticipated since 2011, when Cuba
enacted a 300-point overhaul of its domestic economy to encourage more
private enterprise.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta, Rosa Tania Valdes and Marc
Frank; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Source: Cuba approves law aimed at attracting foreign investment - Yahoo
News -
http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-set-approve-law-aimed-attracting-foreign-investment-160800804--sector.html;_ylt=AwrBEiQ5CTdTxBQAm9vQtDMD
By Daniel Trotta
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's National Assembly passed a new foreign
investment law on Saturday that aims to bring badly needed capital to
the communist economy by offering steep tax cuts and promising a climate
of investment security.
The assembly voted in a special session to approve the law, state
television reported without providing a vote tally. It will become valid
within 90 days.
The new law halves the profits tax from 30 to 15 percent and exempts
investors from paying it for eight years, though it also appears to
withhold many of the tax benefits from companies that are 100 percent
foreign-owned. Those incentives are reserved for joint ventures with the
Cuban state and investments linking foreign and Cuban companies.
Analysts and Cuban-based diplomats have expressed skepticism over the
law, uncertain whether the one-party state has undergone a genuine
change of heart and truly wants to attract foreign investors on
international terms.
Areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, sugar, nickel mining,
building renovation and real estate development are considered ripe for
investment.
Cuba needs to attract $2 billion to $2.5 billion in foreign direct
investment per year to reach its economic growth target of 7 percent,
minister for foreign trade and investment Rodrigo Malmierca said on
Cuban state television on Friday night.
Cuba does not publish figures on FDI, which economists estimate to be
several hundred million dollars a year at most. Cuba's gross domestic
product is expected to expand 2.2 percent this year, compared with 2.7
percent growth in 2013.
"If the economy does not grow at levels around 7 percent ... we are not
going to be able to develop," Malmierca said.
"We have to provide incentives in order for them to come," Malmierca
said of foreign investors.
Cuba is cut off from U.S. investment by a comprehensive trade embargo
and has failed to meet its investment targets for each of the past five
years.
The new investment law continues the structural economic reforms under
way in Cuba since President Raul Castro took over from his ailing
brother Fidel in 2008. It has been anticipated since 2011, when Cuba
enacted a 300-point overhaul of its domestic economy to encourage more
private enterprise.
(Additional reporting by Nelson Acosta, Rosa Tania Valdes and Marc
Frank; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Source: Cuba approves law aimed at attracting foreign investment - Yahoo
News -
http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-set-approve-law-aimed-attracting-foreign-investment-160800804--sector.html;_ylt=AwrBEiQ5CTdTxBQAm9vQtDMD
Sociology of Transport
Sociology of Transport / Regina Coyula
Posted on March 28, 2014
My acquaintances in public transport like Ms. C tells me that we are now
facing another cyclical crisis in urban transport. In the rush hours you
see bus stops which are full up and people hanging about in queues 50
metres long and who are trying to guess where the bus is going to pull
up, which, you can be sure, will not be at the stop.
The "blues" and "yellows" we used to see have disappeared, those
inspectors authorised to stop public transport and organise passengers
wanting to get on. In contrast, lots of fairly empty buses associated
with work places, pass the crammed-full bus stops, one after the other,
giving rise to lots of colorful comments on the subject of the
privileged few.
In the face of this phenomenon, I always ask myself whether it wouldn't
be better if this semi private transport were incorporated into the
public transport, but as a dear acquaintance says to me: The "Razonamil*
I'm taking must have too strong an effect.
The irritation of buses whizzing past just adds to other frustrations,
every one of which is a burden. Therefore, waiting for a bus and, if you
can manage to get on, listening to how everyone in there gives vent –
even if briefly – to his individual view of the process of modernisation
of the economy, and how it provokes immediate reactions from other
passengers, is a good thermometer, even though it may be that the
general "reaction" is one of indifference.
Looking at the passengers' faces doesn't show you a happy society. Some
of them pass the journey dozing, even though they are standing up; the
younger ones often cut themselves off with their earphones or, on the
other hand form noisy groups and are often abusive if people protest.
Most of the passengers are men and they are also the majority sitting
down. Rucksacks, baskets, briefcases and parcels which seem to be heavy,
take up a space which is already insufficient for the passengers. Gaunt
faces, acrid smells, verbal violence in response to the slightest
incident. And the heat is the last straw in this micro world.
*Translator's note: "Razonamil" is a joke, a fake name of a drug that
makes Regina "see reason".
Translated by GH
28 March 2014
Source: Sociology of Transport / Regina Coyula | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/sociology-of-transport-regina-coyula/
Posted on March 28, 2014
My acquaintances in public transport like Ms. C tells me that we are now
facing another cyclical crisis in urban transport. In the rush hours you
see bus stops which are full up and people hanging about in queues 50
metres long and who are trying to guess where the bus is going to pull
up, which, you can be sure, will not be at the stop.
The "blues" and "yellows" we used to see have disappeared, those
inspectors authorised to stop public transport and organise passengers
wanting to get on. In contrast, lots of fairly empty buses associated
with work places, pass the crammed-full bus stops, one after the other,
giving rise to lots of colorful comments on the subject of the
privileged few.
In the face of this phenomenon, I always ask myself whether it wouldn't
be better if this semi private transport were incorporated into the
public transport, but as a dear acquaintance says to me: The "Razonamil*
I'm taking must have too strong an effect.
The irritation of buses whizzing past just adds to other frustrations,
every one of which is a burden. Therefore, waiting for a bus and, if you
can manage to get on, listening to how everyone in there gives vent –
even if briefly – to his individual view of the process of modernisation
of the economy, and how it provokes immediate reactions from other
passengers, is a good thermometer, even though it may be that the
general "reaction" is one of indifference.
Looking at the passengers' faces doesn't show you a happy society. Some
of them pass the journey dozing, even though they are standing up; the
younger ones often cut themselves off with their earphones or, on the
other hand form noisy groups and are often abusive if people protest.
Most of the passengers are men and they are also the majority sitting
down. Rucksacks, baskets, briefcases and parcels which seem to be heavy,
take up a space which is already insufficient for the passengers. Gaunt
faces, acrid smells, verbal violence in response to the slightest
incident. And the heat is the last straw in this micro world.
*Translator's note: "Razonamil" is a joke, a fake name of a drug that
makes Regina "see reason".
Translated by GH
28 March 2014
Source: Sociology of Transport / Regina Coyula | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/sociology-of-transport-regina-coyula/
Membership Card or Passport?
Membership Card or Passport? / Yoani Sanchez
Posted on March 28, 2014
The whole neighborhood called him by the peculiar last name he'd
inherited from his Basque grandfather. Vertical for ideological reasons,
he always made it clear that he was "a man of the cause." Meeting after
meeting, report after report, complaint after complaint, few exceeded
him in offering proofs of faith in the system. He was also characterized
by his severe face against the protestors and the hugs he gave to those
who shared his ideology. And so it was, until a week ago.
The family tree bore fruit and the combative man just managed to get his
Spanish passport.* In his Communist Party nucleus they told him to
choose: foreign nationality or continuing to be a member of that
organization. Faithful, but not stupid, he chose the first. As of a few
days ago he premiered his new life without red card or statutes. He has
already started to wink at some of the dissidents in the neighborhood.
"You know you can always count on me," he blurted out at someone who,
until recently, he'd always kept a watch over.
It's a curious party organization that brags about exercising
internationalist solidarity, but doesn't want dual nationality
communists in its ranks. At least such narrow-mindedness is helping to
convert certain extremists into "meek foreigners." Given the speed with
which they change, one wonders if they previously believed in what they
were doing, or were simply opportunists. Perhaps in preferring an EU
passport they are just choosing a different mask, a new tone for their
chameleon skins.
*Translator's note: Spain's Law of Historical Memory set a limited
period during which Cubans who could prove a Spanish grandparent
qualified for Spanish citizenship.
Source: Membership Card or Passport? / Yoani Sanchez | Translating Cuba
- http://translatingcuba.com/membership-card-or-passport-yoani-sanchez/
Posted on March 28, 2014
The whole neighborhood called him by the peculiar last name he'd
inherited from his Basque grandfather. Vertical for ideological reasons,
he always made it clear that he was "a man of the cause." Meeting after
meeting, report after report, complaint after complaint, few exceeded
him in offering proofs of faith in the system. He was also characterized
by his severe face against the protestors and the hugs he gave to those
who shared his ideology. And so it was, until a week ago.
The family tree bore fruit and the combative man just managed to get his
Spanish passport.* In his Communist Party nucleus they told him to
choose: foreign nationality or continuing to be a member of that
organization. Faithful, but not stupid, he chose the first. As of a few
days ago he premiered his new life without red card or statutes. He has
already started to wink at some of the dissidents in the neighborhood.
"You know you can always count on me," he blurted out at someone who,
until recently, he'd always kept a watch over.
It's a curious party organization that brags about exercising
internationalist solidarity, but doesn't want dual nationality
communists in its ranks. At least such narrow-mindedness is helping to
convert certain extremists into "meek foreigners." Given the speed with
which they change, one wonders if they previously believed in what they
were doing, or were simply opportunists. Perhaps in preferring an EU
passport they are just choosing a different mask, a new tone for their
chameleon skins.
*Translator's note: Spain's Law of Historical Memory set a limited
period during which Cubans who could prove a Spanish grandparent
qualified for Spanish citizenship.
Source: Membership Card or Passport? / Yoani Sanchez | Translating Cuba
- http://translatingcuba.com/membership-card-or-passport-yoani-sanchez/
Carromero’s Last Days
Carromero's Last Days / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
Posted on March 28, 2014
The young Spanish politician Ángel Carromero's days are numbered. It
could be 6 or 666 days, but it will not be a "natural" death. He knows
it and his executioners also know that he knows it. So it must be in his
still-open file in the confidential archives of Cuban State Security.
Hence, the Ministry of Interior (MININT) thugs who let him leave Cuba
contrary to every prediction warned him, with all historical honesty: if
you talk, no one will save you from the long arm of evil.
Rest in peace, Ángel Carromero, witness to totalitarianism in its
terminal phase. Nobody escapes the criminal Castroism in the
democracies. Hence the fascist repudiation that was the Iberian Left's
welcome for this snitch of two assassinations, with the political
correctness that demands we pardon the clan of the Cuban comandantes.
The Spanish publisher Anaya just punished Death Under Suspicion. A book
that the intellectuals will literally turn to shit with their prejudices
and opinions. They don't believe this victim, nor any who come from
Cuba. They don't want to read this kind of gloomy witness to the meaning
of Real Socialism's survival. They don't want to have to—and certainty
not because of a Popular Party politician—stop showing solidarity with
the Real Socialist Revolution. They don't want to believe that Crimes of
the State are possible in the mecca of international anti-imperialism.
Nobody asked this human rights guy, imprisoned in Cuba and in Spain no
less, to spoil the Faustian fiesta of the European Left and its
sentimental Castrismo.
Especially in Spain, where the hatred of everything Spanish that can be
smelled from Havana (the only city on the planet where everyone wants to
be Spanish).
I won't say a single word about the book. There is nothing new in its
pages. It's just a testimony in the face of posterity, so that new
generations will remember, when it pleases them, that at noon on 22 July
2012, in Cuba, the State committed a double assassination against the
human rights activists Harold Cepero and the founder of the Christian
Liberation Movement Oswaldo Payá, our first winner of the Andrei
Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament
(2002), and perhaps also our first Premier when the Castro regime collapsed.
Carromero already spoke. He spoke from minute zero, when men in plain
clothes took him to the militarized hospital in eastern Cuba, the most
vile area of our debased little island. Men in plain clothes who never
spoke at the hijacked trial where they condemned Carromero in Cuba, a
trial whose sentence of four years perhaps even the King of Spain
himself now considers impeccable, such that the Iberian National
Audience literally also throws shit all over this conspicuous case of a
Spaniard* killed at the hands of another Spaniard.
It would not be strange that Oswaldo Payá's death had been agreed to in
advance, beyond the Plaza of the Revolution: perhaps with sectors of the
Cuban exile interested in paving an economic path to reconciliation—the
new reconcentration; perhaps with the quackquackquack Cardinals who, in
the end, practically made Payá a Catholic pariah inside Cuba; perhaps
with the high politics that is cooked up between Strasbourg and
Washington DC, where, far from the thousand and one infertile forums,
everyone agrees that democracy in Cuba has to wait. Contrary to Payá's
redemptive preaching, the last thing they want is for Cubans to
recognize their rights. We have lived too many decades without rights,
why insist now on these desires for freedom that will only destabilize
our region in relation to Europe and the United States.
The Cuban people should express their gratitude for Ángel Carromero's
unarmed courage and they should hurry while he's still alive. But I
suspect that after the testimony of Death Under Suspicion, once again
the idea of Revolution and the idea of crime-without-punishment will be
synonymous with the idea of lack of solidarity.
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
*Translator's note: Oswaldo Payá had Spanish citizenship; Ángel
Carromero was driving the car in which he died.
From DiariodeCuba.com, 25 March 2014
Source: Carromero's Last Days / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/carromeros-last-days-orlando-luis-pardo-lazo/
Posted on March 28, 2014
The young Spanish politician Ángel Carromero's days are numbered. It
could be 6 or 666 days, but it will not be a "natural" death. He knows
it and his executioners also know that he knows it. So it must be in his
still-open file in the confidential archives of Cuban State Security.
Hence, the Ministry of Interior (MININT) thugs who let him leave Cuba
contrary to every prediction warned him, with all historical honesty: if
you talk, no one will save you from the long arm of evil.
Rest in peace, Ángel Carromero, witness to totalitarianism in its
terminal phase. Nobody escapes the criminal Castroism in the
democracies. Hence the fascist repudiation that was the Iberian Left's
welcome for this snitch of two assassinations, with the political
correctness that demands we pardon the clan of the Cuban comandantes.
The Spanish publisher Anaya just punished Death Under Suspicion. A book
that the intellectuals will literally turn to shit with their prejudices
and opinions. They don't believe this victim, nor any who come from
Cuba. They don't want to read this kind of gloomy witness to the meaning
of Real Socialism's survival. They don't want to have to—and certainty
not because of a Popular Party politician—stop showing solidarity with
the Real Socialist Revolution. They don't want to believe that Crimes of
the State are possible in the mecca of international anti-imperialism.
Nobody asked this human rights guy, imprisoned in Cuba and in Spain no
less, to spoil the Faustian fiesta of the European Left and its
sentimental Castrismo.
Especially in Spain, where the hatred of everything Spanish that can be
smelled from Havana (the only city on the planet where everyone wants to
be Spanish).
I won't say a single word about the book. There is nothing new in its
pages. It's just a testimony in the face of posterity, so that new
generations will remember, when it pleases them, that at noon on 22 July
2012, in Cuba, the State committed a double assassination against the
human rights activists Harold Cepero and the founder of the Christian
Liberation Movement Oswaldo Payá, our first winner of the Andrei
Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament
(2002), and perhaps also our first Premier when the Castro regime collapsed.
Carromero already spoke. He spoke from minute zero, when men in plain
clothes took him to the militarized hospital in eastern Cuba, the most
vile area of our debased little island. Men in plain clothes who never
spoke at the hijacked trial where they condemned Carromero in Cuba, a
trial whose sentence of four years perhaps even the King of Spain
himself now considers impeccable, such that the Iberian National
Audience literally also throws shit all over this conspicuous case of a
Spaniard* killed at the hands of another Spaniard.
It would not be strange that Oswaldo Payá's death had been agreed to in
advance, beyond the Plaza of the Revolution: perhaps with sectors of the
Cuban exile interested in paving an economic path to reconciliation—the
new reconcentration; perhaps with the quackquackquack Cardinals who, in
the end, practically made Payá a Catholic pariah inside Cuba; perhaps
with the high politics that is cooked up between Strasbourg and
Washington DC, where, far from the thousand and one infertile forums,
everyone agrees that democracy in Cuba has to wait. Contrary to Payá's
redemptive preaching, the last thing they want is for Cubans to
recognize their rights. We have lived too many decades without rights,
why insist now on these desires for freedom that will only destabilize
our region in relation to Europe and the United States.
The Cuban people should express their gratitude for Ángel Carromero's
unarmed courage and they should hurry while he's still alive. But I
suspect that after the testimony of Death Under Suspicion, once again
the idea of Revolution and the idea of crime-without-punishment will be
synonymous with the idea of lack of solidarity.
Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo
*Translator's note: Oswaldo Payá had Spanish citizenship; Ángel
Carromero was driving the car in which he died.
From DiariodeCuba.com, 25 March 2014
Source: Carromero's Last Days / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/carromeros-last-days-orlando-luis-pardo-lazo/
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